Synergi in Solidarity: Our ‘Anti-World Mental Health Day’
October 29 , 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Join us for ‘Synergi in Solidarity’, our quarterly collective meeting
The 10th October is ‘World Mental Health Day’, a yearly event meant to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world. However, at Synergi and our host NSUN we see these days as tokenistic and inappropriate.
The concept of a ‘World’ mental health day signifies the imperial exportation of the medical model and the harms caused by colonialism under the guise of ‘health care’. In response, this quarterly networking meeting will be themed around critiquing the concept of ‘World Mental Health Day’.
Join Synergi and our guests Arya Thampuran, co-lead of the Black Health and the Humanities Network at Durham University, and Colin King psychiatric survivor and lead of the Whiteness and Race Equality Network at Oxford University, for discussion on what’s wrong with awareness days like these, the harm of the medical model for non-white racialised communities, and what we can do differently.
Arya (she/her)
Arya Thampuran is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University and co-lead of the Black Health and the Humanities Network in her day job, and a yoga instructor pre-sunrise/post-sunset. These roles capture her interests in mental health and healing, engaging with communal knowledges and practices around wellbeing.
Arya’s work is broadly situated at the intersection of the medical humanities and critical race studies; she is interested in how creative practitioners in contemporary African diasporic contexts express distress and healing, in ways that re-script prevailing psychiatric narratives of illness and wellness. Principally, her work is committed to a decolonial and intersectional approach.
Colin (he/him)
Colin King was diagnosed with schizophrenia at aged seventeen, as educationally subnormal with bi-polar, to witness and experience modern Drapetomania in restraint, medicalisation and ward violence. He made the transition to mental health practitioner, commissioner, teacher and lived experienced anti-racist researcher and advocate. Setting up the Martin Shaw King Trust, Black and Asian and Coaches Association and the Whiteness and Race Equality network in alliance with consultant psychiatrists, the collaboration centre, Oxford University, racialised community groups, and The Lancet Psychiatry.
Colin is currently a Research Activator of the Patient and Career Race Equality Framework, Seni’s Law, Ajibola Lewis, and Mental Health Use of Forces Act. He has carried out research into whiteness and mental health, the legacy of Drapetomania in modern health care, and mental health within professional sport. Colin is presently researching and developing peer support training for equity in mental health. He does this through peer review training for equality of mental health outcomes and a cultural capacity framework within a range of Mental Health Transformation projects for medical and ward staff.
About Synergi
Synergi focuses on the intersections between racial justice & mental health, distress or trauma.
We connect activists and organisers into a network and shift power and resource to grassroots groups. We celebrate the history of activists that have come before us, and in collaboration, we build on this legacy. Together we’ll imagine alternatives, reshaping the future to one of hope and healing, justice and joy.
Spaces for this meeting are limited so please check your availability before registering, and email us at synergi.info@nsun.org.uk if you can no longer attend.
Synergi and NSUN’s Conduct Agreement
We want virtual Synergi spaces to be safe, welcoming, and inclusive. Harassment, hate speech, and inappropriate behaviour of any kind, verbal or in the chat/Q&A, will not be tolerated.
We reserve the right to immediately remove any attendee we consider to be in breach of this conduct agreement. This includes anyone making racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory, offensive, or hateful remarks.
Removed participants will not be able to re-join the session, or, if applicable, join any of the rest of the sessions in a day or series of events. In order to avoid the derailing of sessions we will not enter into conversations around why conduct was deemed inappropriate in the sessions themselves.
Please read the full Online event conduct agreement here.
Please note: We shall close registrations for this event on Monday 28th October at 9am.
Late admittance
Please note that to avoid disruption or distraction, we will be unable to admit latecomers (anyone who arrives ten minutes after the event’s start time).
Access
You can find an Easy Read Guide to joining Zoom meetings here.
If you need help with costs to be able to access this event, we may be able to make a contribution – please get in touch with us at synergi.info@nsun.org.uk
Zoom closed captions will be available to turn on during the meeting.
We will be asking that attendees keep themselves on mute while others are talking to avoid audio distractions.
Please let us know of any access requirements in your sign up form and we will try to accommodate them as best as we can.
Consent
Please note: We are planning to record the session so we can show parts of it on our website and social media. There is a question around consent for this in the registration form.
(If you turn on your camera/microphone to speak, you may appear on the recording. Chat/Q&A messages are not shown on recordings but may be read out by hosts or speakers). After the event, consent can be withdrawn within 48 hours of the recording, after this we can make no guarantees that it hasn’t already been published.
